Spanish Heritage

Some of you may be surprised to find out that I have a Hispanic heritage. My mother was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico until the age of 17, when her family moved to Winter Haven, FL. Looks can be deceiving and having a father of Norwegian background, I didn’t get many Hispanic features! One thing that was never in short supply in my house was delicious Puerto Rican Food. Once of my favorite meals (and rather unhealthy I have to admit), is Mofongo (Mo-phon-go).

The ingredients for this dish are very simple; plantains, broth, garlic, olive oil and pork (my mother used the shredded kind). Plantains are often confused with bananas (picture below). You do NOT want to eat a raw plantain. The taste is, let’s just say, unpleasant. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find plantains in the Midwest, so I haven’t been able to indulge in this meal unless I am back home in North Carolina.

Plantain
To cook mofongo, you start by deep frying a plantain that has been peeled (just like a banana) and cut into pieces.

Cut plantains
You want to fry the plantains until they get a rich golden brown color in the center and a little crisp on the outside.

Coloring of well cooked Plantains
Once the plantains are taken out of the oil and placed on a paper towel to absorb the extra oil, you place all the ingredients into a molcajete (mole-chi-yet-ay), which is basically a Spanish version of a mortar and pestle that is made out of stone.

Molcajete
One all the ingredients are mashed to perfection; you mound the mixture onto a plate, salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy!

Delicious!
This is a very traditional Puerto Rican recipe and something that brings me back to my Spanish roots. Even after years of study and living with a mother who can speak Spanish, my ability to speak the language is a little shaky. However, being around it all the time, I am very good at understanding what is being said to be, it’s the responding that is difficult!